Accused wins appeal after judge told him: 'Shut your mouth’

A defendant who was told by a judge to “shut your mouth and listen” just
before he had to give evidence on why he had two knives in his car has had
his subsequent convictions overturned.

7:00AM BST 08 Apr 2011

Koenya Tedjame-Mortty was left “anxious and shaken” after the exchange in which the crown court judge was “rude, harsh and sarcastic” during his trial last year, the Court of Appeal was told.

Judge Fergus Mitchell, in a “raised voice”, reprimanded the 32 year-old for speaking to a member of the public.

The judge told him to “shut his mouth and listen”, asked him how he “dare” speak to a boy on work experience at the court and told him he would be “really sorry”. He then threatened to revoke Mr Tedjame-Mortty’s bail, which would have left him unable to collect his child.

Minutes later, Mr Tedjame-Mortty, of Feltham, London, had to explain before a jury why he had the knives with him.

He received a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty at Kingston Crown Court in October of two counts of having a bladed article. Mr Tedjame-Mortty, who was wearing a disposable paper suit when arrested, said at his trial that he had the knives with him to open paint tins because he was decorating.

His name was cleared by judges at the Court of Appeal who said they could not rule out the possibility that the quality of his evidence was affected by Judge Mitchell’s “wholly inappropriate” intervention. At the trial last year, a boy on work experience at the court complained that Mr Tedjame-Mortty had looked at him in an “unpleasant and threatening manner”.

He said the defendant then approached him outside court and asked what he was doing there.

Judge Mitchell spoke to Mr Tedjame-Mortty the next day to determine if there had been a possible contempt of court.

Mr Justice Keith, sitting with Lord Justice Toulson and Judge John Bevan QC, at the Court of Appeal, said that throughout the exchange — which took place without the jury present — Judge Mitchell was “rude, harsh and sarcastic”.

Appealing against the convictions, lawyers for Mr Tedjame-Mortty argued that they were unsafe because their client had been too upset to give a “credible” account to jurors. Allowing the appeal, Mr Justice Keith said Judge Mitchell’s “inappropriate behaviour” was bound to have left Mr Tedjame-Mortty unsettled.

He said: “We do not think that we can safely exclude the possibility that he may have given his evidence less credibly than he would have done if the judge had dealt with the matter appropriately.”